The boys who were meant to be
by slowroad
Summary: This is a series of drabbles telling the story of Albus and Scorpius' friendship and subsequent relationship in a series of snapshots over several years.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: All Harry Potter characters herein are the property of J.K. Rowling and Bloomsbury/Scholastic. No copyright infringement is intended.

...

The first time that Albus met Scorpius, they were both four years old. It was at Fortescue's that Ginny and Albus happened upon Astoria and Scorpius. The two women nodded politely to each other and made their way to separate tables, where they left their sons and their shopping bags and went over to the counter to pick up the ice creams. When they got back to their tables, they found the shopping bags intact and their sons missing.

They had a moment of the kind of heart stopping panic that only a parent can have before they spotted the two boys kneeling on a bench by the window on the other side of the store. They had their noses pressed against the window pane as they stared out into Diagon Alley. They were talking enthusiastically about something. Albus was waving his arms about, clearly describing something, while Scorpius listened with his eyes wide. Then Albus looked out of the window and laughed. He tapped Scorpius on his shoulder and pointed to something. Scorpius looked and then he laughed as well. Albus stared at the other boy for a moment and then he impulsively leaned forward and kissed him on his cheek.

Scorpius looked very surprised, but he smiled shyly at the other boy and then they went back to looking out of the window at the brightly lit and sometimes glowing display at Weasley's Wizard Wheezes across the road, ice creams and mothers forgotten in their absorbtion with each other. Neither of them remembered this meeting of course, but they were both fascinated with the story from the first time that they heard it.

So it was no surprise that when they ran across each other in the train on their first trip to Hogwarts, they were curious enough to make their way into the same compartment and attempt a conversation. By the time they reached Hogwarts a few hours later, they had decided that they were going to be best friends. They walked into the Great Hall for the sorting ceremony, hoping that they would end up in the same house.

"SLYTHERIN!" the sorting hat shouted the moment it touched Albus' head and that was that.


	2. Chapter 2

Albus jumped off the stool, gave the sorting hat back to Professor Flitwick and took off at a run to find his friend. Scorpius was beaming as he waited for him. Albus was always impulsive with his affection and this occasion was no different. He hugged Scorpius the moment he reached him and he treated everyone in the Great Hall to a sight that no one had ever expected to see...A Potter hugging a Malfoy.

Professor McGonagall had a lump in her throat as she watched the two boys. _If ever there was a sign that we've put the war and our old prejudices behind us, it's this,_ she thought, as she silently commended both Harry and Draco for having managed to raise their sons to be free of prejudice. She glanced at the Gryffindor table to see how James and the rest of the Weasley kids were taking this and she was surprised to see nothing more than some fond head shaking. No one seemed particularly put out that Albus had ended up in Slytherin house. And they didn't seem to care that Scorpius Malfoy seemed to have become his new best friend.

Albus and Scorpius talked all through dinner. They got to know a few of the other first years as well, but they were mostly preoccupied with each other. They discovered as they talked that they had a lot of things in common. They both loved Quidditch and they both liked to play as Beaters, a fact that had been a disappointment to both their fathers.

They were both fond of books and music. Scorpius played the piano while Albus played the violin. It was exciting to find out all these things about each other. By the time they went to sleep that night, having chosen beds next to each other and having spent half the night whispering away, they were both very happy and looking forward to school with an eagerness that they could barely contain.


	3. Chapter 3

The first term went by in a busy round of classes and games. Albus found that he liked being a Slytherin. Everyone in his house had a quiet dignity and a certain self sufficiency that appealed greatly to him. He visited his brother and his cousins in Gryffindor every once in a while and as he often told Scorpius, he found most Gryffindors to be a little too loud and boisterous for his taste.

Albus and Scorpius spent virtually all of their time together and by the time the Christmas holiday rolled around, they were pretty much inseparable. Neither of them was looking forward to the holiday at all. Twenty days without seeing each other seemed a little too awful to contemplate. They would just have to find a way to convince their parents to let them meet at least a couple of times a week.

Harry and Draco had had more than three months to get used to the idea that their sons were best freinds, but nothing could've prepared them for the way their sons moped about the house, looking miserable, just two days after the holiday had started. What made it worse was that it wasn't anything very obvious. There were just a few subtle differences in the boys' behaviour, but both Harry and Draco knew their sons well enough to see that the boys were out of sorts.

And before they knew it, they were writing to each other, making plans for their sons to meet, dropping them off and picking them up. By the time the holiday was over, Harry and Draco had ended up meeting almost every day. It was impossible not to get to know each other a little bit and by the time the holidays were over their sons went back to school happy in the knowledge that they had manipulated their fathers so well, that the two men had actually started to become friends.


End file.
